Gov. Tom Wolf returned to one of his favorite topics in his budget address yesterday, the first of his second term.
He once again is calling for a big bump in education funding.
That will come as good news to the large group that gathered last Saturday in Morton to talk about the uneven playing field that is education funding in Pennsylvania.
To do that the governor will need revenue, yet he stressed yesterday that he is not seeking a tax hike. Last week he announced that he will again push for a severance tax on the state's natural gas industry, but he added that he would use the bulk of that money for a new program to attack the state's crumbling infrastructure.
If you thought the Legislature actually resolved the education funding riddle a few years ago when they passed a new Fair Funding Formula for education subsidies, you were only part right.
The Fair Funding Formula only pertains to new increases in education funding, not the basic education subsidy. A recent study suggested that to level the playing field when it comes to education funding under the current formula, the state would need something in excess of $3 billion in new education funding.
That's not going to happen.
Of course, all of this could be resolved in court later this year, when a family from William Penn and several others from struggling districts across the state make the case for why the current formula doesn't work - and in fact fails the state mandate that all children be given an equal education.
We talk about it on today's editorial page.
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